SA 400m star Van Niekerk at ease with celebrity status

His a man who can easily slip into a bus and sit next to anyone without letting them get a whiff of his greatness.

Such is the ease and charm of South African Olympics champion and men 400m record holder Wayde van Niekerk that it makes it difficult for anyone to believe he is among the biggest stars of his sport today.

His jaw-dropping achievement at the Rio 2016 Olympics when he stormed from seemingly out of the blue to break the 17 year-old and one of the longest running world records in modern athletics belonging to the American lap-legend Michael Johnson has earned him huge respect even among the headline stars of track and field.

“Wayde is somewhere here, you guys go and ask him but I believe he can go under 43.00, I don’t think I could have done that, it’s too much work,” the show-stopper in athletics and Jamaican nine-time Olympics sprint champion, Usain Bolt said on Friday in Monte Carlo, Monaco hours before the 2016 IAAF World Athletics Awards Gala.

American two-time Olympics and world Triple-jump winner, Christian Taylor who is also one of the latter day emblems of the sport in the field even went as far as backing the amiable South African student to be crowned the IAAF World Athlete of the Year ahead of Bolt and Britain’s distance icon Mo Farah.

Nierkerk who won the Olympics medal in a staggering new world record of 43.05 seconds and the only man to win the final from lane eight has handled the exaltation that came with his biggest career moment with the grace of a village hero.

Speaking ahead of the gala, the 24 year-old who announced he will start his 2017 campaign proper when he sits for his exams early next year said the celebrity status his victory brought especially in South Africa where he has become the poster boy of not only track and field but the whole sport will inspire him to aim for more greatness.

Since Rio, he has appeared in more television promotion reels than any other South African sportsperson and pulls amazing crowds whenever he is going out even for shopping with his victory being replayed ad neauseum on the country’s biggest pay sport TV SuperSport.

“It has its good and bad I have handle more media than usual. I’m just enjoying the moment and the experience of what comes with what I have achieved and use it to try and inspire more South Africans and show them we belong among the world greatest in track and field.

“I’m hoping to inspire more to into track and field and become a major motivation to more young South Africans,” Nierkerk who easily affords a smile said.

“I’m not a big fan of attention around me and to me its important to go out there and show respect to people. When you walk into a mall and see a person in tears for the inspiration you have given them make me appreciate the positive side of it and it motivates me to work harder,” he added.

-Gorgeous girlfriend-

With his gorgeous girlfriend Chesney Campbell close by as he fulfilled his media obligations, Nierkerk took time to respond to any request for side interviews and pose for official and private photos in a poise most Kenyan athletes can only dream of.

Nierkerk is not a fan of 400m that has catapulted him to global fame, a fact that stunned Jamaican Rio 2016 Olympics women 200m and 400m champion, Shaunae Miller who spoke after Bolt at the pre-gala post conferences.

“I heard him say that and it’s crazy! He’s so good at it and he can do amazing things in 400m,” she added.

And according to Nierkerk, who would win a 400m showdown between Bolt and Kenyan two-time Olympics champion David Rudisha?

“Obviously Usain does not like anything above 200m and that is why he decided to go back to only 100m for next year, if we go on that, we would back David but if we bank on speed, Usain would have taken it.

“If they run against me, obviously I back myself to beat them,” he declared with a huge grin.

Niekerk was born in Cape Town. He attended Bellville Primary and Grey College before going on to study marketing at University of the Free State.

He made his international debut at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where he placed fourth in the 200 m with a personal best time of 21.02 seconds and was the bearer of the South African flag at the Rio 2016 Games before proceeding to be the only second athlete to break a world record in his final.

And not only did he break the world record but smashed Johnson’s previous seemingly untouchable standard in the modern era of 43.18 in the process, towing the other medallists to break 44 seconds in the fastest 400m race of all time.